Search

Begin New Search Publishing Institution East-West Center

181. Why Science Alone Won't Solve the Climate Crisis: Managing Climate Risks in the Pacific

Author:
Melissa L. Finucane
Publication Date:
08-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
The Pacific Islands are extraordinarily vulnerable to the effects of climate change. And although policymakers are turning to science to answer questions of how communities should deal with climate challenges, scientific knowledge is only one element of an effective risk-management process. The people of the Pacific Islands hold diverse beliefs about climate change and these beliefs inform their decisions. In addition, a dynamic social context influences the extent to which people are able to respond meaningfully to climate impacts. To solve the climate crisis, policymakers need to set a risk-management agenda that integrates sound science with an understanding of how that science is interpreted and translated into action in society. They will need to work not only with scientists, but also with cultural leaders, theologians, philosophers, and community groups. Lessons learned in the Pacific region, along with broader knowledge about factors affecting human decisionmaking, illustrate how policymakers can bridge the gap between climate science and society to facilitate adaptation.
Topic:
Climate Change and Energy Policy
Political Geography:
Israel, Asia, and Australia/Pacific

182. Crossing Borders, Changing Landscapes: Land-Use Dynamics in the Golden Triangle

Author:
Jefferson Fox
Publication Date:
12-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
Over the last half-century, public policy has affected land-use practices across the borders linking China, Thailand, and Laos. Political and economic reforms have facilitated labor mobility and a shift in agricultural practices away from staple grains and toward a diverse array of cash crops, rubber being one of the foremost. China has promoted the conversion of forests to rubber agroforestry in southern Yunnan--profitable for farmers, but a concern in terms of biodiversity and long-term viability. In Thailand, the response is at the other end of the spectrum as the government's concerns about land-use practices and watershed management have led to policies that dramatically constrain land-use practices and limit tenure rights. In Laos the future is not yet clear. Government policies provide weak support for both private land ownership and protected areas. In a global environment where national policy has such a dramatic effect on land use and land cover, the factors behind land-use change merit close examination.
Topic:
Agriculture, Economics, Migration, and Labor Issues
Political Geography:
China, Asia, Thailand, and Southeast Asia

183. Forest Communities and REDD Climate Initiatives

Author:
Mark Poffenberger and Kathryn Smith-Hanssen
Publication Date:
10-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
Loss of the world's forests contributes an estimated 17 percent to all global greenhouse gas emissions, creating both a major challenge and an opportunity for international climate change agreements. In response, global policymakers have proposed that new carbon agreements include rewards for reducing forest-based emissions, an initiative known as REDD–Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation. By creating financial incentives to reduce forest-sourced greenhouse gases, REDD projects could generate funding from developed countries to reduce deforestation in developing countries. In addition, some climate change specialists believe that REDD projects could benefit forest-dependent communities, whose participation is key to controlling the local forces that drive deforestation. Some communities are already learning about the new REDD carbon projects. As one villager from Cambodia explains, "We are going to sell our air to the people who are polluting in the city."
Topic:
Agriculture, Climate Change, and Environment
Political Geography:
Cambodia

184. The New ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights: Toothless Tiger or Tentative First Step?

Author:
Michelle Staggs Kelsall
Publication Date:
09-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
In late 2008 the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) committed to creating a human rights body, which emerged as the Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (ICHR), the terms of reference (TOR) for which have since been adopted. Although the TOR for the commission currently outlines a primarily advisory rather than an enforcement role, the very existence of the ICHR has the potential to act as a trigger to further discussion on human rights issues in member states and open avenues for further action. To take maximum advantage of this opportunity to further the human rights agenda in ASEAN member states, it is essential that critical early decisions are made carefully so as to leave the most latitude for future action. While some observers are concerned that the ICHR lacks teeth, the fact that all ten ASEAN governments have agreed to implement a human rights commission is remarkable and is an essential first step toward ASEAN's stated goal of respecting and protecting human rights.
Topic:
Human Rights, Human Welfare, International Organization, and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:
Israel, Asia, and Southeast Asia

185. Are the Farmers Always Right? Rethinking Assumptions Guiding Agricultural and Environmental Research in Southeast Asia

Author:
A. Terry Rambo
Publication Date:
05-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
Southeast Asia faces enormous challenges in managing its agricultural and environmental resources, from global warming to biodiversity loss. But chances for effectively addressing these issues may be hampered by the wide acceptance of four basic assumptions that guide the way we think about problems of managing agriculture and the environment. These assumptions form an interlinked system of thought that privileges the traditional and local over the modern and cosmopolitan. When taken to an extreme they lead to the view that traditional farmers are always right and that modern science is the cause, rather than a possible cure, of the serious environmental problems associated with agricultural development in Southeast Asia. Although when first proposed these assumptions were a radical alternative to the conventional thinking, in recent years they have themselves become the new conventional wisdom.
Topic:
Agriculture, Development, and Environment
Political Geography:
Southeast Asia

186. North Korean Shipping: A Potential for WMD Proliferation?

Author:
Hazel Smith
Publication Date:
02-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
The possibility that North Korean ships may be smuggling weapons of mass destruction is a matter of intense concern in the Asia Pacific region and beyond. The few reported incidents of North Korean ships involved in WMD transport are ambiguous; some ships have been engaged in legal weapons trade and some carried "dual-use" goods suitable for use in nonmilitary applications, like agriculture. Ownership of the North Korean merchant fleet is largely private and highly fragmented; most of its ships are small, old, and in poor repair, and are often subject to rigorous scrutiny in foreign ports. The inability of the government to effectively regulate the low-cost, substandard shipping industry creates the risk and incentives to smuggle goods, including WMD. Anti-proliferation efforts should abandon the divisive and unsuccessful Proliferation Security Initiative and concentrate on negotiating North Korea's entry into international arms control treaties, maintain stringent port controls, and negotiate technical assistance to reduce the vulnerability of the North Korean shipping industry.
Topic:
International Trade and Finance, Nuclear Weapons, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Political Geography:
North Korea

187. The Global Economic Crisis and Its Implications for Asian Economic Cooperation

Author:
Michael G. Plummer
Publication Date:
10-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
The economic crisis of 2008–09 is the second major crisis in just over a decade that Asia has endured. Unlike the Asian crisis of 1997–98, however, the current crisis originated mainly in the West. Asia's excessive reliance on net exports as the principal driver of economic growth since the 1997–98 crisis rendered it especially vulnerable to external shocks, and most Asian countries have paid dearly. The more open the economy, the more vulnerable it is to such shocks. The newly industrialized Asian economies (Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan), which are among the most open and dynamic in the world, are expected to contract by about 6 percent in 2009.
Topic:
Emerging Markets, International Trade and Finance, Regional Cooperation, Global Recession, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
Taiwan, Asia, South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong

188. A New Geography of Knowledge in the Electronics Industry? Asia\'s Role in Global Innovation Networks

Author:
Dieter Ernst
Publication Date:
08-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
Political debates about globalization are focused on offshore outsourcing of manufacturing and services. But these debates neglect an important change in the geography of knowledge––the emergence of global innovation networks (GINs) that integrate dispersed engineering, product development, and research activities across geographic borders.
Topic:
Emerging Markets, Globalization, Industrial Policy, International Trade and Finance, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
Asia

189. The (Non) Impact of UN Sanctions on North Korea

Author:
Marcus Noland
Publication Date:
02-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
This study finds that North Korea's nuclear test and the imposition of UN Security Council sanctions have had no perceptible effect on trade with its two largest partners, China and South Korea. Before North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test, it was widely believed that such an event would have cataclysmic diplomatic ramifications. However, beginning with visual inspection of data and ending with time-series models, no evidence is found to support the notion that these events have had any effect on North Korea's trade with its two principal partners.
Topic:
International Relations, Arms Control and Proliferation, Diplomacy, Nuclear Weapons, Treaties and Agreements, Weapons of Mass Destruction, International Security, and Sanctions
Political Geography:
South Korea and North Korea

190. The State Strikes Back: India and the Naga Insurgency

Author:
Charles Chasie and Sanjoy Hazarika
Publication Date:
02-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
In the first decade after India declared independence in 1947, the Indian state faced numerous challenges to its very existence and legitimacy. These ranged from a war with Pakistan over the state of Jammu and Kashmir immediately after independence, an issue that continues to challenge policy makers in both countries, to the first armed uprising in the country in Telengana led by Communists in what is today the state of Andhra Pradesh.
Topic:
Security, Political Violence, Armed Struggle, and Counterinsurgency
Political Geography:
Pakistan, South Asia, India, Kashmir, and Andhra Pradesh